


Found Freddy

by TheGreatGame



Category: Five Nights at Freddy's
Genre: Fazbear Frights: Fetch, Fazbear Frights: Lonely Freddy, Gen
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2020-03-12
Updated: 2020-06-28
Packaged: 2021-02-28 18:13:48
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 2
Words: 5,510
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/23121553
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/TheGreatGame/pseuds/TheGreatGame
Summary: On her tenth birthday, Hazel had gotten what she had always wanted. After years of silent research, wishing on stars, and writing out elaborate plans in crayon, her brother Alec finally didn’t hate her anymore. It may have taken a rocky, albeit shamefully fun, week of acting rotten, as well as a heartbreaking fight at Freddy Fazbear’s Pizzeria, but all of that pleasure and pain seemed to pay off.So why did Hazel feel so suspicious?A continuation of theFive Night's at Freddy's Fazbear Frights #2story "Lonely Freddy". Hazel starts to catch on that her brother may be even more different now than he used to be. Is gaining a kind, caring older brother worth losing her real one? Will one last trip to Freddy Fazbear's Pizzeria be enough for Hazel to find her brother and set him free? Or will the real Alec be trapped in a mechanical body forever, or worse? With a mysterious man taking away the Freddys for his own purposes, the clock is ticking...
Comments: 21
Kudos: 41





	1. Chapter 1

**Author's Note:**

> As I mentioned in the summary, this story is a continuation of the short story "Lonely Freddy" by Scott Cawthon, Andrea Waggener, and Carly Anne West. (As for the latter two authors, I can't tell how much of the stories they worked on, so I'm listing them both just in case.) I would recommend reading that story first before reading this fanfiction, as you may be lost without it.

On her tenth birthday, Hazel had gotten what she had always wanted. After years of silent research, wishing on stars, and writing out elaborate plans in crayon, her brother Alec finally didn’t hate her anymore. It may have taken a rocky, albeit shamefully fun, week of acting rotten, as well as a heartbreaking fight at Freddy Fazbear’s Pizzeria, but all of that pleasure and pain seemed to pay off. 

From the moment he re-emerged from the inner workings of Freddy’s, Alec had been nothing but apologetic. He had practically flung himself at Hazel’s feet, whimpering about his biggest regret- hurting her. Despite her whole family having wanted this for years, Hazel and her parents were too stunned at first to accept it. Hazel hated to admit this, but for a second, she had a flash of ersatz insight; this was just a plan her brother had formed so that he could hurt her again. He was playing innocent in order to gain her trust again, just so that he could tear it down like he had earlier, tear it like the arm of the Yarg Foxy doll Hazel had tried so hard to win for him.

She quickly shook off that idea. It couldn’t have been healthy to think like that. 

After the initial shock, Hazel and their parents were happy to bring Alec back to the birthday party, where he finally acted like a decent older sibling. This behavior continued even after they got home. Her brother smiled at her now instead of scowling. He often asked to be included in her favorite games, no matter how stupid he had called them in the past. He even helped his parents almost every time they asked something of him, which made them thrilled beyond belief. Everything was perfect now.

So why did Hazel feel so suspicious?

She couldn’t say when these feelings started. Sometimes she wondered if the first inklings came when they brought Alec home from the party. His new behavior was so welcome that their parents almost forgot about how horribly he had acted before. 

“You know,” his mother said, smiling at Alec more that night than she had in his entire life, “I might just make lasagna tonight.”

“My favorite!” Alec cried.

There was something in the way Alec had said that. Hazel could only call it over enthusiasm. Which was ridiculous, since lasagna was indeed Alec’s favorite food. Still, Alec had never _said_ it was his favorite food, or at least, not in words. Hazel knew this fact by the way Alec would groan if their mother decided not to cook lasagna after all; how he wolfed lasagna down when it was served at dinner; how he would belch and grin at the dinner table after eating it, something that would make Hazel wince on the outside but smile on the inside, since that was one of the few instances she saw genuine pleasure on Alec’s face. 

The way Alec had said “My favorite!” sounded more like a confirmation. It was important that Alec knew the significance of lasagna. 

Hazel forced herself to stop thinking like that, even when her brother focused more on the garlic bread than the main course, and how he didn’t go for his typical second helping.

After the next two weeks, Alec’s brand new good behavior continued, and so did Hazel’s flashes of suspicion. She tried her best to ignore it. After all, her brother was finally playing with her like it wouldn’t kill him to do so. She learned what it felt like to play on his Xbox with him, the second-player controller being used for the first time since it arrived in their house. She got to hear his voice laugh for more than two seconds at a time. She got to feel what it was like to get hugs from him. It was like being with a whole new Alec.

And that was the problem. This Alec didn’t feel like Alec at all.

As much as Hazel had asked him to just be good, she knew people didn’t change so immediately, not like this. She had expected Alec to shakily slide into good behavior, like he did during the play-acting week before her birthday. It had been a bit tricky for him at first, and he had needed to over exaggerate at times. Hazel could tell when his normal irritable personality was bubbling underneath the surface. But it had gotten easier for him over that week. Hazel thought it was progress.

But now, Alec took to it as if the rest of his life had been nothing at all. As if what came before didn’t matter.

“What’s the matter, Haze?” Alec asked her once after a game of Mario Kart. 

Hazel bristled. Not only was he cheering on her victories, but he was also giving her a nickname- “Haze”. This was coming from the boy who once called nicknames “the lazy way out for people who were either too stupid or disrespectful to remember basic information.”

She almost said “nothing.” She wanted to say “nothing.” But she had promised herself no more lying, no more acting. 

“I’m just…” Hazel chose her words carefully. “Thinking about how you used to behave.”

Alec muted the small television he kept in his room and focused his gaze on his sister. His green eyes flashed at her in a way she swore they never did before two weeks ago. 

“Hey,” he said, “you don’t have to worry about that anymore. I promise I’ll never hurt you again.”

Hazel smiled. How often had she dreamed of Alec saying that?

“It’s just that, you know, there were some moments that weren’t too bad.”

Alec snorted. “Seriously? I was a nightmare before I got some sense into me.”

 _Or so their parents kept saying,_ Hazel mentally added. Now that Alec was penitent, he and Hazel didn’t need to eavesdrop on the top of the stairs to hear their parents’ thoughts. They were fine saying how horrible Alec had been to his face, just because they thought the worst was over. Alec may have taken all these comments with a smile, but Hazel had decided to feel hurt on his behalf. 

“I mean, yeah,” she admitted. “But you weren’t a total nightmare. You were just different.”

 _Different in a way I couldn’t be,_ she thought. 

“You were really funny.” Hazel smirked. “Sometimes I miss Captain Thunder Pants.”

Alec’s puzzled stare sent a chill through her. He looked like she had suggested he used to be a two-headed unicorn. 

_That would just make it a bi-corn,_ said the Alec in her mind. The Alec she was oddly starting to miss.

“Captain Thunder Pants,” Hazel repeated. “From when mom and dad let you name yourself in a new attempt at parenting. All it did was make you fart all the time saying you couldn’t help it, because it was your namesake. You probably farted more during those few days than you do in a year. You ate so many bad things for the joke that you got a horrible stomachache. And later, it got really hard to share a bathroom with you.” Hazel couldn’t help but giggle. “But I was five, so it was still pretty funny. I would’ve laughed, but I didn’t want mom and dad to be mad at me.”

So instead, Hazel had let them only be mad at Alec. She had let them explode at him, and only him, for the chaos he made that time.

“I wish I had laughed more then.”

She looked up at Alec, who considered this information with a raised eyebrow, as if this was an interesting story he was hearing for the first time. 

Then Alec grinned his shiny, new grin.

“Well, if stinking up the air is what you want me to do, then let me know when to eat more beans, eh?” 

Alec put his hand in Hazel’s perfect curls and ruffled them. Hazel let it happen, distracted by a new thought.

“Hey, Alec,” she said, “you know a joke you made that was hard to laugh at?”

“What, sis?” said Alec.

 _Sis._ Somehow, that word especially made Hazel’s skin prickle.

“When we went on that camping trip and I got bugs trapped in my new lace dress. You said it was mean because I would put all the spiders out of their jobs of catching flies.”

Alec winced and groaned. “Oh, god. I’m so sorry, Haze. That was horrible. I apologize. Now, how about another game to take our minds off it?”

“OK,” Hazel muttered, focusing her attention on the video game instead of her brother. Focusing on the colorful virtual cars and their competition instead of how Alec had apparently forgotten about the mosquito that flew up her nose, how he had convinced her that it would lay eggs in her nasal passage. She still hated that joke, even now, but somehow she wished she could see her brother’s mouth crinkle in a rare look of joy at it one last time.

Eventually, she convinced herself that Alec’s good behavior was too… well, _good_ for her to look this gift horse in the mouth. So what if he mysteriously got bad at his skateboard practice, laughing off the way he fell on his butt during moves he had perfected a year ago? So what if he looked resigned when he chose clothes, toys, and accessories that were green, his favorite color? So what if the fun they were having now didn’t match up to the fun they had during their week of role-reversal before Hazel’s birthday, when Hazel could finally do things she had only dreamed of doing, when she felt she could finally see a glimpse of her brother’s friendly side?

Finally, two weeks after the party, something happened that Hazel couldn’t ignore. It started with something the whole family couldn’t ignore— their mother had lost her MasterCard.

“Honey,” their dad crooned as his wife raced through the house, “just stay calm.”

“Stay calm?” she shrieked. “Some stranger could spend all our money at any moment! Stay calm? How about you start worrying?!”

 _Thanks to you, Dad always worries,_ piped up the Alec in Hazel’s head. _It’s a miracle his hair hasn’t gone white._

In reality, Alec soothingly said, “It’ll be OK, mom. You can check how much money is in the account online.”

For the first time since the discovery of the card’s absence, their mom breathed a little easier.

“You’re right,” she said. “You’re right. Thanks, sweetie.”

“No problem.” Alec smiled before he went back to texting a new friend of his at school. Ever since he had turned himself around, he had become quite the social butterfly. 

“According to HSBC, no transactions were made since Hazel’s birthday party,” their father said, closing his laptop. “When was the last time you saw the card?”

Their mother’s face paled as realization trickled through her.

“At the pizzeria,” she said. “I must have left it there.”

Their father sighed, then clapped his hands. “All right, team, move out.”

Alec, who Hazel had seen tense at the first mention of the pizzeria, looked up from his phone in alarm. 

“What?” Alec squeaked.

“Sorry, sport, but we need all hands on deck for this operation. More eyes for searching.”

“I’m not going back there.”

Alec’s voice was so harsh that it caused her parents to take a step back. Hazel almost thought her old brother had finally returned. But the tone of his voice wasn’t just resistant and stern. There was a waver in the way he had snapped at them, something soft and hurt. For a moment, Alec looked truly terrified.

Then Alec seemed to realize just what he had said and quickly smiled.

“I’m sorry,” said Alec, “but that place has too many bad memories.”

Alec turned away, but not fast enough for Hazel to miss the look in his eyes. Hazel had heard the phrase “thousand yard stare” before, but she had never been able to picture just what it could look like. In that moment, Alec looked like he was staring across hell. 

Their father put a hand on Alec’s shoulder. 

“Don’t worry, bud,” their dad said. “We know you’ve changed. That tantrum of yours is far behind us.”

Alec blinked, then chuckled softly. 

“Right,” said Alec. “The tantrum.” 

“You’re a new person now,” said their dad. “You won’t disappoint us again, will you?”

Alec stared at their dad, his green gaze as cold and sharp as an electric shock.

Finally, their mother broke the silence.

“Just get in the car!” she shouted. “We can’t waste any more time.”

“I-I don’t feel well,” Alec stammered, but it was no use. He was bundled out of the door along with Hazel, no match for their mother’s panicked, shoving hands. Only Hazel seemed to care that Alec's feet refused to move. His sneakers dragged on the ground before their parents finally pushed him into the back seat of their car. 

“If it was there for two weeks, it would have been taken already,” Alec pleaded during the ride to the pizzeria. “It must still be in the house.”

“I searched the whole house!” said their mother.

“Maybe I should go back and check for you.”

“Alec, what’s wrong?” asked Hazel. 

Alec tried to give her a reassuring look, but it was much too frantic.

“Nothing,” he said. “As long as we’re in and out, everything will be fine.”

Hazel reached out to put her hand on his own. Alec almost jumped through the roof of the car, but then he took her hand and squeezed it gratefully. It was almost a touching moment. 

Then Alec’s voice dropped to a whisper.

“Stay with me,” he said. “Promise that you won’t go far.”

“Ok,” said Hazel. 

She tried to pull her hand back, but Alec tightened his grip. His gaze went straight through Hazel’s eyes and pierced her heart. 

“Promise me,” he hissed.

“I promise!” she squeaked.

Just as suddenly as this conversation started, it stopped. Maybe it was because Alec finally noticed the tears in the corners of Hazel’s eyes. Maybe it was because he saw their father look at them from the rearview mirror. Either way, he let go of her hand, patted it, and turned to stare out of the window.

Hazel remembered something their parents had taught Alec to do whenever he got too angry. Count to ten, breathe in through the nose and out through the mouth. While it didn’t completely get rid of her unease, it helped a little. Hazel repeated this exercise until the car finally parked in the driveway of Freddy Fazbear’s Pizzeria. 

***

Time passed slowly in the Dumpster. Or maybe it was more accurate to say that time wasn’t real. To Alec, any time spent in pure darkness was close to an eternity. It was why he used to sleep with the curtains pulled back to let in the moonlight, or at least with his glowing alarm clock close to him. Now, he couldn’t even sleep, not really. Not with the screams of his fellow captured Freddys ringing in his ears. If he had a heart, it would have never stopped racing, even when he knew that hours, even days, were passing. His voice would have joined the others in their chorus, but he still couldn’t figure out how to speak in this new form. He had to settle for his familiar mental wailing, which at least reminded him of how he used to sound.

Still, even in the eternal darkness, Alec knew that only a day or two must have gone by before the lock finally clicked open and the Dumpster lid was raised once more.

 _Help!_ he tried to cry. _Get me out of here!_

Then he realized that all of the other Lonely Freddys had gone quiet. Not still, though. Some of them seemed to spasm slightly, jostling among the others. It was almost like they were shivering.

Alec looked into the eyes of the man above him and swore he saw the devil.

“Jesus!” the newcomer groaned. “Is that puke? You put a puked-on bear in here?”

“Well, you told me to put the Lonely Freddys here when they stopped working right,” said a bored, monotone voice. It was probably one of the minimum-wage employees. Alec could sense the apathy from across the room.

“Yeah, but not if they’re covered in vomit! Now a bunch of em are filthy.”

The newcomer groaned and gingerly waved his hand over the sad, sorry lot until he found a Lonely Freddy that was free from sick. He plucked it out with a firm grip. Once his purple glove had touched the Freddy, it shivered even more, until it was struggling in his grasp.

“Calm down,” he grunted. “You’ll be free soon enough.”

The newcomer turned to look behind him at the employee.

“I have to take care of some business for a couple of weeks. When I come back, I want these Freddys spotless.”

“Wait, so you’re not gonna fix them?”

“I’m an engineer, not a cleaning service. I don’t love kids enough to handle their puke.”

“So we’ll only have that Lonely Freddy for the next two weeks?”

“No, we-" The newcomer tightened his grip on the now-squirming Freddy in his arms. He opened a panel in its back, flicked a switch, and grinned as it suddenly went limp. “That’ll hold you.”

The newcomer turned back to the employee. “Look, I’ll send a few more Lonely Freddys to tide you over, ok? Until then, take care of this mess.”

“Right away, Mr. Afton.”

Alec mentally sobbed as the Dumpster lid was closed and locked again. He heard footsteps as the employee left the storage room. Mr. Afton started to follow, but stopped as a piercing wail echoed off the walls, a cry so sharp and shrill that Alec wanted to cover his now-mechanical ears.

“Don’t worry, little one,” Mr. Afton purred. “You’ll be free soon enough.”

Finally, the storage room door opened and closed, leaving the Freddys lonely once more.

Alec tried his best to calm down, but the Freddys hadn’t stopped shivering. Just as he thought things couldn’t get worse, one of them broke the silence. 

“Bad man.”

Then another Freddy said it. Then another and another, until Alec was surrounded by cries that no one would hear, warnings that no one could follow.

_“Bad man! Bad man! Bad man!”_


	2. Chapter 2

Alec had been so tense during the car ride that Hazel walked into Freddy Fazbear’s expecting a disaster. From the way Alec acted, Hazel imagined that the place would be on fire, or maybe full of masked people with guns demanding a fortune in game tokens and sodium-rich pizza. She was disappointed to find that everything was business as usual, if not less exciting. The main reception area was barely half full of people. Hazel peeked through the doorway into the party area and didn’t see much of interest. It might’ve been a slow day, but there were still kids shouting around grimy arcade cabinets, the animatronics on the stage near the back were once again jerking around in their unnatural song and dance routine, and there were even some people sitting at tables and wincing at the taste of the pizza they were shoveling into their mouths. 

Hazel turned to Alec with an “I told you so” on her lips. The words fizzled out when she saw that Alec had stopped looking terrified. He had a hand to his forehead, his eyes closed as if he was dealing with a headache.

“Are you OK?” she asked.

Alec gasped and opened his eyes. He grinned weakly and said, “Yeah. ‘Course. Just… tired, I guess.”

Hazel followed her brother’s gaze to where their mother was speaking with a Freddy Fazbear’s employee. She was spewing words at a mile a minute. The teen employee was processing them in inches. 

“This might take a while,” their father groaned. “I’ll check near the cash registers. You two look around the party room.”

“Couldn’t we look here instead?” Alec groaned. 

The first signs of disappointed annoyance started forming on their father’s face, something that rarely happened ever since Alec miraculously turned over his new leaf. Despite Alec’s strange behavior, Hazel leaped in to defend her brother. 

“I thought it would be best,” she said, “since Alec isn’t feeling so well. That way, he’ll be near the door and get more fresh air that way.”

Their father quickly smiled, the apparent inconvenience now gone. 

“Thoughtful as always, darling,” he said. 

Hazel grimaced internally. She had claimed it was her idea just so that if it failed, she would get the blame instead of Alec. Instead, it had worked and now she was getting praised. This had happened so many times over the course of her life, it felt like routine. This wouldn’t be so bad if Alec’s needs weren’t always pushed to the side afterwards, barely giving him attention, much less kindness. 

Hazel had hated the tantrum Alec threw on her last birthday, but she spent a lot of time remembering it to figure out why Alec had hated her so much in the past. He had called her “a spoiled, bratty fake,” as if she tried her best to clean up his messes and dissipate their parents’ anger just to get whatever she wanted, just make her look good. It was a horrible thing to think, and it had made Alec do horrible things in retaliation for nothing at all. Hazel wasn’t excusing him for that. 

But if that was the case, then at least Hazel could see where Alec had been coming from. 

And yet, here Alec was, smiling at Hazel in gratitude.

“Thanks, Haze,” said Alec.

“Don’t mention it,” Hazel muttered.

“Unfortunately, Hazel,” said their dad, “I don’t think having children snoop around cash registers would be the best idea. The people here would probably think you were young delinquents trying to break into the prizes behind the counter, if not the registers themselves. You’d fit best in the party room with the other kids.” 

Their dad ignored Hazel and Alec’s stammering protests and gave them some not-so-gentle pats on the back to guide them in the direction of the party room. As Hazel stepped forward, she realized Alec was trying to grab her hand. She felt too bad for him to pull it away, but it wasn’t long before his hand was crushing hers just like it did in the car. Hazel suddenly had the horrible thought that it really wouldn’t take too much effort for Alec to break her bones. For now, though, she swallowed the pain and led him into the party room.

Once they had fully immersed themselves in the bright colored lights and strange, potent smells of modern children’s entertainment, Hazel finally tugged her hand from Alec’s grip. The pain had been getting too intense, and Alec was aware of it. He flashed an apologetic smile before returning to his now familiar grim dread. 

“Mom mainly stayed at the left side of this room during the party,” said Hazel, “and even then, she didn’t go far from the tables. If we only check around there, then we’ll be out of here in no time.”

Hazel could see Alec building up his confidence again. Slowly, he started to stand up straighter. His chest puffed out almost in a challenge to the room filled with cartoon animals and tinkly music.

Then he heard something that made his brave face fall instantly.

“Do I know you from somewhere?”

Hazel turned and, upon seeing who it was, quickly stepped behind her brother. This boy wasn’t much bigger than Alec, but what he lacked in height, he made up for in muscle. Hazel didn’t know him personally, and hoped she never would, but she had heard enough talk during recess to know that this was Randall “Ran” Jenkins, one of the cruelest kids in town. 

Ran had the disposition and face of an abused bulldog that was too frightening to form a pack. Not even the other bullies at his school would befriend him. Fortunately, his school was on the other side of town, far from the one Hazel attended, but just the stories of Ran biting the finger of a substitute teacher who yelled at him, or how he had headbutted two different classmates into comas, was enough to give Hazel nightmares. Before Alec’s miraculous change, Hazel had been constantly frightened that her brother would get on Ran’s bad side in some way. Getting on peoples’ bad sides used to be Alec’s special talent. Alec insulting Ran and causing one, if not both, of their early deaths wasn’t a matter of if, but when.

Still, Hazel wondered, perhaps the stories of Ran’s cruelty were more exaggerated than she thought. This boy was undoubtedly Ran- his ugly mug matched every exaggerated detail she had overheard at recess. However, his aura, while menacing, wasn’t fueled with the mad, uncontrollable urges of a rabid boar. This boy was standing tall with his hands clasped calmly in front of him. He didn’t look ready to headbutt anyone into submission, nor bite off any fingers. He had a calm grin on his face, which was directed solely at Alec.

“We’ve never met before,” said Alec, who was doing his best not to look directly at Ran. “You’ve got me mixed up with someone else.”

Ran opened his mouth to speak further, but was interrupted by a screeching elderly voice from across the room.

“Randall!” shrieked a wizened, gray-haired woman. “You behaving yourself over there?”

“Of course, I am, gramma,” Ran called back. “No need to worry.”

Ran’s “gramma” nodded in a surprised sort of satisfaction before turning to a man by her side who looked just ugly enough to be Ran’s uncle. Hazel had heard that Ran’s parents had left him as a baby, putting him in the care of his uncle, who hadn’t had the first clue how to raise a kid, and his grandmother, who had parenting experience, but was too deaf and blind to see how horribly Ran’s uncle treated him. Hazel couldn’t make out what they were saying, but she thought she heard the words, “miraculous change of heart.”

“That’s my gramma,” said Ran. “She is my favorite caregiver, and the person I admire most.”

Ran said this information in the same eager, confirming manner that Alec had about lasagna a couple weeks ago. As if expecting someone to say, “You’re right, that is what Ran thinks.” 

“Cool,” said Alec. “Well, we’re looking for something right now. My mom lost her credit card, so…”

“Your mom lost her credit card,” Ran repeated. He cocked his head. “You say that like you mean it.”

Hazel frowned. She wanted to ask Ran what he meant by that, but she was still too scared to reveal herself. This was Ran Jenkins, after all. However, from her vantage point behind Alec, she spotted something strange behind the gentle giant of a bully. A Lonely Freddy doll was marching slowly but surely towards them. This, in itself, wasn’t too unusual. A quick look around showed Hazel why there would be a Lonely Freddy here- despite the small amount of children present, there were still the meager, lowest-cost options of a party set up around Ran’s gramma and uncle. It was apparently Ran’s birthday, and not only were there little to no guests, but the birthday boy could apparently be so ignored that he deserved a Lonely Freddy. No, all in all, a Lonely Freddy shouldn’t have been that unusual.

What was unusual was how it was walking. It marched from the direction of a distant hallway in what could only be called an uncertainly determined shamble. It moved like a creature that was either too nervous to walk, or had recently forgotten how to do so. Even over the noise, Hazel could hear a furious mechanical growl coming from deep within the bear. A toddler ran near it, obviously planning on picking it up, when the Lonely Freddy chomped the air just before the boy’s face with a snap of its metal jaws. The boy jumped before running back to its mother, tears just beginning to spill from his eyes. 

The Lonely Freddy had its eyes on Ran, and the desperate fire in them was enough to make Hazel shiver.

Ran and Alec, however, were too focused on their conversation to notice this. Ran stepped closer to Alec, who was startled enough to finally look into the other boy’s eyes. 

“You seem… familiar,” said Ran. 

“I…” Alec choked, before he yelped and put a hand to his head. 

Hazel stifled her own sound of panic. She wanted to pull Alec aside, ask him what was wrong, take him by the hand and lead him far away from Freddy’s, but she couldn’t. Not with Ran right there. Not with that stern-looking robot coming ever closer to them. 

Ran hummed in realization. “Ah, I see. It’s crowded in there.”

“No,” Alec growled through gritted teeth. “No. It’s just me. Just-”

Ran put two fingers under Alec’s chin and tilted his head up. Alec opened his eyes and found he couldn’t close them again.

“Look at me,” said Ran.

Hazel couldn’t see much from her spot behind Alec, but she swore she saw something moving in Ran’s eyes. It could’ve been a reflection of the multi-colored party lights flickering around them. It could have also been a small jumbled pattern of lines and circles. Or maybe, ones and zeros.

Alec’s green eyes flashed and he jerked forward. Hazel’s concern finally conquered her fear and she grabbed his arm, supporting him just enough so that he didn’t collapse. 

“Alec!” she cried. “Are you OK?”

Slowly, Alec stood up straight. His head rose in degrees, taking all the care of a machine starting up again after a long time shut down. He turned and looked at Hazel as if he was seeing her for the first time. 

“Hello, Hazel,” he said. “I’m just peachy.” The corners of his mouth rose in a special grin that showed off all his teeth.

Before Hazel could shiver out of her own skin, Ran turned and picked up the Lonely Freddy by the back of its neck. The oversized teddy bear had been one second away from sinking its teeth into Ran’s leg. Once it was staring directly into Ran’s face, though, it froze. Hazel thought it almost looked horrified.

“You got a feisty one,” Alec chuckled. 

“Sure did.” Ran raised a hand and called over a Freddy’s employee. “They won’t miss him one bit.”

The Freddy’s employee seemed less skilled at handling the Lonely Freddy than Ran was. Somehow, Ran had instinctively known the perfect handhold for lifting the animatronic, a sweet spot that functioned almost like the nape of a kitten’s neck. The teen employee settled for lifting it under his arm liked a sack of potatoes, and paid the price by constantly shuffling the mass of metal so that it wouldn’t bite or claw at his arm.

“So,” Ran said, turning his back on the angry little bear, “how did you get so crowded up there?”

“Oh, now _there’s_ a story,” Alec began. He put his arm around Ran as if they had known each other for a lifetime. 

Hazel blinked in surprise as the two boys walked toward a nearby table. She was now alone in the center of the party room. 

She turned and watched as the Freddy’s employee that was carrying the Lonely Freddy disappeared down a hallway. Hazel realized why that hallway seemed so familiar; she and her mother had gone down that way during her birthday party. They had been looking for Alec, but all they could find was that mangled Yarg Foxy doll in a dusty old storage room.

Hazel perked up. That storage room was the only place their mother had been in outside of the party room. She had even set her purse down on the floor while they found the doll and talked about Alec. It was a long shot, sure, but if there was any chance her card was still in the pizzeria, it might as well be in there.

Hazel looked over her shoulder at Alec and Ran. Her brother had apparently totally forgotten his earlier panic about coming here. Now he was muttering some tidbit of information to Ran, who leaned over the table with a look of fascination that made Hazel shudder. As for Alec… it was as if his new leaf had turned a third side. His body language was now like Ran’s: straight and calm. Slow, yet sure. It didn’t help that Hazel knew firsthand that underneath that calm exterior, there was a frightening amount of strength. 

She slipped into the hallway before Alec could see her staring at him. She might not have been allowed in the depths of the restaurant, but something told her she didn’t want him tagging along.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Hello, everyone. I'm so sorry this chapter took a while to post. First, I was too busy working on my senior thesis to dedicate my time to fanfiction. Then 2020 just got more stressful week after week. Hopefully, I'll be able to update a bit more frequently now. Thanks for all your kind comments, and I hope you stick around 'til the end, whenever that may come.


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